Talk about an emotional Christmas tale. A man who goes by Eric Schmitt-Matzen and works as a Packing Seals and Engineering president – but whom the community of Jacksboro, Tennessee, knows this time of year as Santa Claus – recounted for local media how he was called to a hospital to present a little boy, age 5, with his holiday gift.

And after presenting, the boy died in his arms.

The Knoxville News Sentinel had the story:

“‘I’d just gotten home from work that day,’ Schmitt-Matzen told the Knoxville New Sentinel. ‘It was a nurse I know who works at the hospital. She said there was a very sick 5-year-old boy who wanted to see Santa Claus.’

“He rushed to the hospital, where he met several of the boy’s relatives, including his mother. She had purchased a toy from television’s ‘Paw Patrol’ and asked him to give it to the boy, as Santa, of course.”

So he took the toy and walked into the ICU to see the boy laying in bed, so weak he looked asleep.

And the story, via the Washington Post, continues here:

“[H]e looked at the boy and ‘started with that jolly voice.’

“‘What’s this I hear you’re gonna be missing Christmas this year?’ he asked the boy.

“‘They tell me I’m dying,’ he responded.

“‘Really?’ Schmitt-Matzen asked. ‘Well, you’re not going to miss Christmas. The elves already had your present made. We knew you wanted this for a long period, for a long time.’

“The boy could ‘barely unwrap it,’ so Schmitt-Matzen helped. When he saw the toy, he smiled.

“Then, Schmitt-Matzen told CNN, ‘he just kind of put his hands down and laid back into the pillow and looked at me. He said, ‘They say I’m dying.’

“Schmitt-Matzen asked the boy to do him a favor.

“‘When you get to those pearly gates, you just tell them you’re Santa’s number one elf. I guarantee you, it’ll open the gates for you.’

“The boy smiled and said, ‘I am?'”

Schmitt-Matzen said the boy then gave him a big hug and asked, “Santa, can you help me?”

And Schmitt-Matzen took him in his arms, gave him a big hug – and that’s when the boy died.

“Before I could say anything,” he said, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported, “he died right there. I let him stay, just kept hugging and holding on to him. … I cried all the way home. I was crying so hard, I had a tought time seeing good enough to drive.”